He turned his mouth away, and Elk Ivory pulled up the bag, and lowered his head to the ground again.
“Promise me,” he croaked.
“What?”
“Promise me that … you … you will end this for me before I shame myself.”
She slowly lifted her eyes, and he could see her paling.
He said, “I—I don’t want Wren to remember me … begging.”
Elk Ivory closed her eyes, and turned away.
They had both witnessed suffering that lasted for days. At the end, a man or woman would do anything, say anything, to end the pain.
Blue Raven weakly touched the fringe on her moccasin. “I ask this of you as more than a friend. We once loved each other.”
“I will end it,” she said, and turned back to look at him.
It was the first time in his life that he had seen tears in her eyes.
He drew his hands back to clutch at his belly. The pain had turned to hammer blows, stunning, rhythmic, timed to his breathing. “I have always trusted you,” he said, and hunched up, fighting the sobs that constricted his throat.
Elk Ivory moved, sitting between Blue Raven and Wren to block Wren’s view.
Blue Raven leaned his forehead against Elk Ivory’s leg and wept silently.
She smoothed his hair with her hand. “I could do it now,” she murmured. “Do you—”
“No. No, you can’t. Jumping Badger … he would kill you. He wants to question me. You …” He groaned softly, breathing hard. “You must let him. If you killed me now, he would take it out … on you and Wren. Wait. Wait until tomorrow. After he … he has …”
“Yes. I will,” she answered, and laid a cool hand on his hair. “Now, try to rest. I know you will not sleep, but you must—”
“Elk Ivory? Could I speak with Wren? Has Jumping Badger forbidden it?”
She glanced over her shoulder, then looked back, and said, “He has not. But—”
“Please. It will be easier … for both of us … if I speak with her tonight. Tomorrow … I don’t know if I’ll be able to. Not without …” His strength faded with the words.
“I will try. But your cousin may try to stop it.”
“I understand.”
She rose to her feet, and slowly, as if without thinking, walked toward Wren. The other warriors did not seem to notice. They sat around their fires, talking and eating. Blue Raven searched the camp for Jumping Badger, but didn’t see him. Thank the gods, this might work.
Elk Ivory crouched, slipped her knife from her belt sheath, and cut Wren’s ankle bonds, then dragged Wren to her feet and shoved her toward Blue Raven.
“Don’t run,” he heard Elk Ivory order.
Wren walked calmly, her face a sculpture of desperation.
She dropped to her knees at Blue Raven’s side, and said, “Uncle, I’m sorry. I love you. I didn’t—”
“Shh, Wren,” Blue Raven hushed her. “This is not your fault. None of it. Do you understand me?”
She nodded, but the tears leaking down her face said otherwise.
“Wren, we can’t talk very long, and this may be our only chance to speak. Elk Ivory is risking her life to give us this chance. Please. Listen carefully.”
“Yes,” Wren sobbed. “I will.”
Pain blazed through him. Blue Raven squeezed his eyes closed. His belly felt as if it were turning itself inside out. He couldn’t stop the shuddering, but he kept the groan locked behind his teeth.
When the torment eased, he looked into Wren’s horrified face, and fought to find the strength for words. “Wren … no matter what … happens. You must repeat the story you heard me tell Elk Ivory. Do you … do you remember it?”
“Yes, Uncle.”
“Tell me. I want to—to hear you say it.”
Wren gestured feebly with her bound hands. “I went to Lost Hill, and found you gone and Rumbler—”
“The False Face Child.”
“The False Face Child. I found you both gone, and I followed you. I only caught up with you …” She blinked back her tears and shook her head. “When?”
“Yesterday. And you were with me when I … I sold … the boy.”
“I was with you when you sold the boy to Matron—”
“No!” He shook his head violently. “No. You do not know who the two people were. They were from the … the Turtle Nation. That is all you know. It happened fast. We met them … they paid me … they left. You do not know where they were going.”
She licked her lips nervously. “Yesterday, we met them, they paid you, and left. They didn’t say where they were taking the False Face Child.”